Category: Business News

Benjamin Boakye, Executive Director of African Centre for Energy Policy
(ACEP) has assigned reasons for the mounting debt stock in the energy
sector despite the institutionalisation of several taxes and levies to
address the issue.

Ghana’s energy sector has a debt of $2.2 billion accumulated over a
period of more than two decades. This is generally referred to as the
legacy debt.
This has resulted in government’s inability to occasionally purchase
fuel for the production of power and pay independent power producers
leading to intermittent power outages.

The operations of State Owned Enterprises within the energy sector like
ECG, VRA, GRIDCo have been constraint largely due to the massive debt
overhang.

In 2015, Government of Ghana, during the administration of John Mahama
passed the Energy Sector Levy Act (ACT 899) to bring under one umbrella,
taxes and levies collected for the settlement of Ghana’s energy sector
debt.

The ESLA was introduced to among others bring together energy sector
levies for their efficient utilisation; defray the country’s energy
sector legacy debts and other liabilities within the energy sector;
serve as source of funds to facilitate sustainable long term investments
in the energy sector.

Continuous debt accumulation

Speaking on PM Express Thursday, Ben Boakye noted that despite efforts
at addressing the problem, the energy sector seems to be piling up more
debt in recent times at a faster rate largely due to power agreements
signed in the last 5 years.

This, in his opinion, has rendered the levies gathered under the ESLA
inadequate to deal with the debt menace that has adversely affected the
institutions for years.

“The money doesn’t appear to be adequate. You have an ESLA that is
supposed to clear outstanding debt and we have not been able to stop
accumulating debt. So whiles you want to address an existing debt
portfolio, you are still accumulating debt” ACEP’s Executive Director
disclosed.

The country’s peak demand in 2018, according to the Energy Commission,
is 2,523.49 MW meaning Ghana has a little below 1000 MW in excess which
is produced but not consumed.

The ACEP Executive Director points to this phenomenon as a significant
contributing factor to Ghana’s inability to settle the legacy debts as
it initially planned.

He disclosed that Ghana is compelled to pay millions of dollars monthly
for power generated despite the fact that it is not being used. The
situation, he adds, will compound should more of the IPPs with whom
agreements have been signed come on stream.

Benjamin Boakye asserted “currently the excess capacity that we have to
pay for is about $25 million every month. So by the end of the year when
you have Amandi coming on, you have Cenpower coming full stream, that
shoots us to about $42 million a month for excess capacity. The debt
accumulation is not stopping, you always have to get extra money to
address some of these challenges. We need to have a real look at these
situation and say how do we deal with it? How do we stop the debt
accumulation so that we can the opportunity to address the existing
debt? Else, the ESLA alone will not be enough”

According to the “Annual Report on the Management of the Energy Sector
Levies and Accounts For The Year 2018” submitted to Parliament by Ken
Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister, GHC2.5 million out of the GHC3.1 million
gathered from the ESLA was utilised by Government.

Misuse of funds

Contributing to the discussion of Ghana’s energy sector debt, the
Damongo MP and Ranking Member on Mines and Energy Committee of
Parliament, Adams Mutawakilu, accused the Akufo-Addo government of
misappropriating funds accrued by the ESLA.

This, he insists, has affected the performance of institutions who would
have had some fiscal room to manage their operations and go for
facilities on their own balance sheet.

“If a government in 2017 ESLA could tell us that they use GHC600 million
to pay for pension arrears, What is more of misuse than that? That ESLA
is purposely for energy sector and therefore you can’t just say you
have liability and then you dip your hand (into it). It is captured in
the report.”

“ECG in 2016 made a profit of GHC725 miilion under President Mahama,
GRIDCo GHC69. So the ESLA if utilised in the manner it is expected, we
expect these agencies to perform better. The more they are able to
perform the more they are able to shoulder any facility they go in for.
As at 2017, we got worst performance. ECG recorded a loss of GHC2
billion because it is not performing; GRIDCO, GHC118 million loss. So
you realise that even with the ESLA the performance has gone down
terribly” the lawmaker stressed.

In the view of the Ranking Member on the Mines and Energy Committee of
Parliament, Mutawakilu Adam, the energy sector debt will linger on for
long time to come because of the government’s approach to dealing with
it.

“This energy sector debt will hang on us for a very long time.”

“The rate of accumulation of debt is astronomical. If we can take from
1992 to 2015 to accumulate $2.4 billion debt and from January 2017 to
today the energy debt accumulated is about GHC2 billion then there is
cause for worry.”

“There was the need to put an end to it and that is why ESLA came in,
bringing all the taxes under one envelop. And as at the end of 2015 we
had $2.4 billion but by the end of 2016 it had reduced to $2.2 billion
because $250 million of the $2.2 billion had been paid.”

Solution

To resolve the issue, however, Executive Director of ACEP, Benjamin
Boakye has advocated strongly for the cancellation of some agreements
signed between the government and power producing companies for the
generation of power.

He emphasised that government must confront the issue of the energy
sector debt head-on to reduce the risk of intermittent power outages.

“We have to sit down and address this energy issue because its going to
be recurrent. We will be talking about it, blaming others but the
situation needs solutions now. I think we have to bit the bullet, some
of the contractors have to go. Who can go? Bear the consequences because
if you are going to pay $200 million today it is better than waiting to
pay GHC 500, GHC1bn in 2-3 years” he cautioned

A four-warehouse project, rehabilitated at the cost of a little over
GH?3 million at Duase in the Manhyia North district of the Ashanti
Region and just handed over to the state, has been classified as having
several defects less than five months after completion.

The project, which was awarded to Messrs Seliwas Company Limited, in
2017, to be completed in five months, was originally estimated at a
little over GH?1 million but was revised to a little over GH?3 million,
being GH?2 million difference.

Out of this total sum spent on the project, GH?572,243 was a
contribution disbursed from the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA).

The expected date for the completion of the project was also revised
from April 4, 2018, to May 4, 2018, however, according to officials at
the facility the project was handed over in February 2019.

This notwithstanding, parts of the newly rehabilitated facility, handed
over to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) for use, has already
started showing signs of wear and tear.

Three of the four structures – including an office used by the Ghana
Commodity Exchange for monitoring – leak heavily when it rains, while
other parts have visible signs of cracks.

During the visit to the facility by members of the Public Interest and
Accountability Committee (PIAC), it emerged that a number of reports had
already been filed on the development. One of such memos reporting the
issue stated that “immediate action needed to be taken before it becomes
disastrous.”

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However, authorities in charge of the facility appeared to have ignored
this plea and persistent calls for attention to be given to the defects
while the newly-rehabilitated facility deteriorate.

The current rate of the facility’s deterioration is feared could affect
the work of the Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX) and National Food Buffer
Stock Company (NAFCO), which currently occupy parts of the facility.

NAFCO stocks variety of food items – including soya beans, rice, and
maize – to guarantee an assured income to farmers by providing a minimum
guaranteed price and ready market. Part of its mandate is also to
mop-up excess produce from all farmers in order to reduce post-harvest
losses resulting from spoilage due to poor storage, thereby protecting
farm incomes.

Currently, NAFCO is in charge of food supplies to senior high schools as
part of the government’s Free Senior High School programme, and
therefore any delay in addressing the leakages at the facility could
affect the quality of grains it stocks for supply.

The Corporate Affairs Manager of NAFCO, Mr. Emmanuel Arthur, explained
in a telephone interview that NAFCO is just an end-user of the facility
but with the current situation would take steps to secure its stock in
order that it is not contaminated in any way.

However, he disclosed that effort was going to be made to engage the consultants and contractor of the rehabilitation works.

Meanwhile, attempts to get some clarifications from the contractor,
Messrs Seliwas Company Limited, were unsuccessful. Several calls placed
to clarify some of the issues that emerged at the visit of the Committee
mandated to monitor and evaluate the management and use of Ghana’s
petroleum revenues by institutions of the state, were not answered.

Also, the Ashanti Regional Director of the Ministry of Food and
Agriculture, Rev. John Manu, in a telephone interview also said he was
not aware of the rehabilitation works. However, he indicated that it
could have been done prior to his transfer to the Region.

The visit by PIAC formed part of its 2019 districts engagement and
inspection of projects supported with oil revenue in the Ashanti Region.

The members of PIAC, led by the Vice-Chairman of PIAC, Dr. Thomas
Stevens, to inspect the facility were not impressed with the state of
the facility considering the amount of money that was spent on the
rehabilitation.

Nigeria and other sub-Saharan African countries would soon heave a sigh
of relief from the importation of petroleum products, with the imminent
completion of the 650,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Dangote Refinery at
Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos.

Group Executive Director, Strategy, Capital Projects & Portfolio
Development, Devakumar Edwin, made this statement on Wednesday, July 10,
2019, during the opening of the Ghana International Petroleum
Conference (GhIPCON), which took place in Accra, Ghana.

This year’s conference held under the theme: ‘Regional Collaboration: A
Catalyst for Transformation,” organised under the auspices of the
Ministry of Energy and the National Petroleum Authority, was attended by
stakeholders in the petroleum sector in the West Africa region.

Represented by the Technical Adviser to the President of Dangote Group
on Refinery and Petrochemicals, Ign. Babajide Soyode, Mr. Edwin
expressed the belief that the completion of Dangote Refinery and other
modular refineries projects across West Africa, would lead to the
integration of the downstream industries and stabilise the prices of
petroleum products across the African sub-region.

He stressed the need for other investors in West Africa to emulate the
investment drive of Aliko Dangote in the downstream petroleum sector and
make the sub-region exporter of refined products.

He also urged investors in sub-Saharan Africa to take the bull by the horn by investing in the downstream sector.

According to him, “If Dangote can do it, any investor can do it.
Dangote has not waited for government to regulate the downstream sector
before starting the construction of the refinery.”

“We don’t need foreign investors to turn around our downstream sector.
African investors should be able to emulate Dangote and revive the
African downstream petroleum industry,” he added.

He assured that the refinery is designed to process multiple grades of
domestic and foreign crude, which can be converted into high-quality
gasoline, diesel, kerosene, and aviation fuels that meet Euro V
emissions specifications.

The facility, according to him, would be integrated with a petrochemical unit that will produce polypropylene and fertilisers.

Mr. Edwin said Nigeria would soon become the largest exporter of
fertiliser in Africa as the Dangote Fertiliser Company is set to
commence full production.

According to him, pre-commissioning activities have started while
construction work is still on-going at the Dangote Refinery site.

Speaking also at the event, the Vice President of the Republic of
Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, assured stakeholders in the petroleum
downstream industry that government would create an enabling environment
for downstream business to thrive competitively, efficiently and with
the highest of safety standards.

“Government, through the Ministry of Energy is in the process of
ensuring institutional and regulatory re-alignment of the midstream gas
subsector to bring clarity and a degree of certainty to players within
that subsector,” he said.

The GhIPCON is designed to actively bring to the fore the operating
industry’s perspective and guidance on issues of governmental and
regulatory policy, as well as best practices for the advancement of the
industry across West Africa.

The conference witnessed a convergence of about 250 regulators and
downstream industry stakeholders from across the West African sub-region
and beyond.

The event stimulated regional discussions that set the tone for a West
African policy framework on the outlook of the petroleum downstream
industry, regulate petroleum downstream infrastructure projects,
efficiency and financing.

Participants discussed whether or not West Africa was ready for IMO
2020 and fuel specification trends, making West African refineries work,
tackling illicit activities, fuel fraud and supply chain security in
the West African sub-region, as well as consumerising West Africa’s
natural gas.

CalBank today conducted a fire safety drill at its Head Office, at
Ridge, Accra in association with the Ghana Fire Service. The drill was
conducted as part of the Bank’s Business Continuity Program (BCP) and
also in fulfilment of regulatory and international safety requirements
and standards on institutional preparedness and evacuation mechanisms
for fire.

During the exercise, artificial smoke was created, hydraulic ladders
were released by the Fire Service to evacuate staff on higher floors.
Fire marshals of the Bank successfully championed the evacuation of team
members to the fire assembly point and a headcount of staff was done.

The staff of the Bank responded to the drill enthusiastically and acted
as they had been trained in the unlikely event of a fire. The Fire
Service commended staff of CalBank for the prompt response and
cooperation during the drill. The drill was aimed to ensure the staff of
CalBank are continuously prepared to respond to emergency situations
and to have practical sessions should there be a crisis.

President Akufo-Addo has said Ghana is a haven of peace, security and
stability, indeed, the safest country in the West Africa sub-region.

According to him, Ghana is a country where legitimate investments are protected.

“We are a country where the principles of democratic accountability and respect for the rule of law, individual liberties and human rights are now firmly entrenched in our body politic, and where the separation of powers is real in promoting accountable governance under the rule of law,” he said. President Akufo-Addo said this on Tuesday at the France-Ghana Business Forum, held at the Ministry for the Economy and Finance, in Paris, as part of his official visit to France.

President Akufo-Addo told the gathering that his administration has
resolved to build a progressive and prosperous country, and is drawing
inspiration from the success story of countries around the world.

President Akufo-Addo told the gathering that since assuming the reins
of office some two and half years ago, his government has put in place
measures needed to reduce the cost of doing business, and improve the
business environment.

“Our goal is to make our economy the most business-friendly economy in Africa,” the President added.

Reiterating that “it is an exciting time to be in Ghana and to do
business in the country”, he enumerated a plethora of multinational
companies that are seeking to establish bases in the country.

Already, global car manufacturing giants, Volkswagen of
Germany, Sinotruk of China, Nissan and Toyota of Japan, and Renault of
France, are working to establish assembly plants in the country.
Energy giant, ExxonMobil of the United States of America, is
establishing an office and base in Ghana.

“We have also decided to walk hand-in-hand with the private sector and the business community on this journey. This is because the New Patriotic Party, the party from which my Government is borne, is of the firm conviction that the role of the private sector in the development of our national economy is crucial,” he added.

Google has established the first Artificial Intelligence Centre in
Africa in Ghana, and Norway’s energy giant, Aker Energy, has, in the
time of President Akufo-Addo, made discoveries of substantial offshore
oil and gas deposits.

“I am sure you may have heard of some of my government’s flagship
policies of “One District, One Factory”, “One Village, One Dam”, and the
programme for “Planting for Food and Jobs”, which I commend to you, as I
do areas in water, health, housing, road and rail infrastructure,
transport, industry, manufacturing, agriculture, petroleum and gas, the
exploitation of our mineral wealth of bauxite, iron ore and gold,
renewable energy and ICT growth,” the President said.

He was particularly excited about the dramatic revival of Ghanaian
agriculture that has been occasioned by the successful implementation of
our programme for Planting for Food and Jobs, which has, within two
years, brought a million smallholder farmers under its ambit.

In tackling Ghana’s infrastructural deficit, the President revealed
that his government is embarking on an aggressive public private
partnership programme to attract investment in the development of
both the country’s road and railway infrastructure.

“We are hopeful that, with solid private sector participation, we can
develop a modern railway network with strong production centre linkages
and with the potential to connect us to our neighbours,” he added.

President Akufo-Addo told the French business community that they
can choose to invest in Ghana through the Ghana Investment Promotion
Centre or set up as a Free Zones enterprise.

“Regardless of where the investment is, government has instituted a
number of incentives for the investor, depending on the nature of the
activity, or the location of the investment,” he added.

Some of these incentives, the President said, include exemption from
payment of import duty for plant and machinery; 25 per cent tax rebate
for companies located in regional capitals; 50% tax rebate for companies
investing outside regional capitals; zero percent corporate tax for
10 years, and, thereafter, 8 per cent for companies in the Free Zones
enclave; full repatriation of dividends and profits; transfer of funds
to service foreign loans; and laws against arbitrary confiscation of
company or investment.

President Akufo-Addo urged the business community in France to take advantage of the growing business-friendly climate in the country to invest in Ghana.

Dozens of worn plastic train seats and dilapidated wooden lockers that were destined for the dump in Ghana have ended up in a Manchester art gallery, in a work by one of Africa’s most exciting young artists.

When hundreds of hard, scratched second-class train seats were abandoned after their clapped-out carriages were scrapped several years ago, only one man was likely to be interested in them.

Ibrahim Mahama has made his name by collecting objects other people would dismiss as junk, but which he thinks can help him tell a story.

After salvaging the seats, the artist has repurposed 120 of them – plus several dozen old lockers once used by train workers – to create a four-sided imitation of Ghana’s parliament chamber at the Whitworth gallery in Manchester. It’s called Parliament of Ghosts.

The ghosts, he says, are the opportunities his home country failed to grasp over the years, and the train seats and railway workers’ lockers symbolise that story.

Ghana’s train system was built under British colonial rule and was due to be expanded after the optimism of independence in 1957, with the railway workers instrumental in the independence movement. But the optimism faded, economic growth struggled to take off and a series of military coups hampered progress. The railways were neglected for decades.

Parliament of Ghosts represents the “potential of a country that was yet to manifest itself, but never came to be, in a way”, Mahama says. The seats and other objects carry the memories of everything they have witnessed and been through, he believes. “They embody all of it.”

The same goes for the lockers. “A lot of these cabinets were used to store workers’ clothes and tools and things. So there’s a lot of grease from the restoration of trains and the dismantling.

“The cabinets almost become these living organisms that witness the entire life cycles of generations upon generations of how a certain system has somehow been maintained – but at the same time the flaws of it. I like to think they are living things that somehow can speak in a language that the workers themselves cannot.”

Parliament of Ghosts doesn’t just represent the flaws of Ghana’s government, but is meant to highlight the failures of parliaments around the world – not least, at a time of Brexit deadlock, the UK’s. “Parliament of Ghosts is a question of what potential lies within the failures of the world,” Mahama says.

The train seats are actually thought to have been manufactured in Manchester or Leeds, adding to the story of their return. This is the Ghanaian artist’s first major UK exhibition – commissioned by the Manchester International Festival – and people are invited to go and use his parliament chamber to host their own debates, performances and screenings.

He has many more train seats back home, and is planning to create a much larger version of the parliament at the arts centre he opened in his home town of Tamale in March.

“When I propose a work, I always make sure I have one maybe three or four times larger in Ghana which we can somehow use to create permanent spaces for the local community to experience,” he says. “Because that’s the point. I guess I’m quite tired of seeing how we as artists produce works which end up going to Europe and other places, whereas locally our own people don’t get to experience these ideas that we’re working with.”

Mahama also talks about how his institute – the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art – is working on initiatives to help with agriculture, housing and education. But he is also in demand in Europe and beyond. At the age of 32, he is represented by the prestigious White Cube gallery in London and earlier this year was the youngest of six artists to exhibit in the first Ghanaian pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

He has previously made artworks out of hundreds of wooden tool boxes used by shoe shiners, and by covering buildings in jute sacks that had been used to carry cocoa, maize and charcoal. He recently also used the sacks to replace the flags outside the United Nations’ headquarters at the Rockerfeller Center in New York. Replacing national flags with decaying food sacks “reminded us of the global condition in a way”, he says.

The Manchester exhibition also includes a replica of the concrete silos that were built in Ghana in the late 1950s to store cocoa beans before they were processed, but which remained empty. There are also battered Ghanaian wooden school bookcases that Mahama obtained after offering to make new furniture for the schools to replace them.

“The older the objects, with the decay and the stains, that’s what I find a value in,” the artist says. “The memory and the pattern is something that speaks to us – rather than when a thing is very new, and it almost has no soul to it.”

Beginning in January 2020, countries within the West African sub-region will be able to use a single currency called ECO.

The currency was adopted by the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government on Saturday in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.

The West African leaders endorsed the currency at their 55th Ordinary
Session and approved a road map towards the currency’s issuance in
January 2020.

There was a roadmap to ensure that all member countries meet three primary criteria for the adoption of the currency.

Criteria for adoption
That includes member countries having a budget deficit of not more than
3%; average annual inflation of less than 10% with a long-term goal of
not more than 5% by 2019.

Countries were expected to also have gross reserves that can finance at least three months of imports.

The other convergence criteria that have been adopted by ECOWAS are public debt or Gross Domestic Product of not more than 70%.

There is also the issue of central banks financing budget deficit not
more than 10% of previous year’s tax revenue, and nominal exchange rate
variation of plus or minus 10%.

At the end of the Abuja meeting, a communiqué read by Nigeria’s
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mustapha Suleiman
noted that the regional leaders instructed the ECOWAS Commission to work
in collaboration with West African Monetary Agency.

The commission is also expected to work with West African Monetary
Institute and all central banks to settle on a symbol for the single
currency.

Significant progress

The ECOWAS Chairman President Issoufou Mahamadou has said that the
revised roadmap does not affect the date for the issuance of the single
currency in January 2020.

Speaking about the deadline for adoption Mahamadou said “We have not
changed that but we will continue with assessment between now and then.

“We are of the view that countries that are ready will launch the single
currency and countries that are not yet ready will join the programme
as they comply with all six convergence criteria.”

ECOWAS has a combined population of 385 million and was set up in 1975.

The Mobile Industry experienced over 2,000 incidents of fibre cuts, and
600 incidents of theft at base stations affecting over 18 million
subscribers within the first half of this year alone, data released from
the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications has shown.

The mobile industry group observed that the prevalence of fibre cuts,
cable/fuel/battery thefts, and vandalism to the infrastructure of its
members’, remains a grave challenge affecting quality of service,
general social and economic activity, security and customer experience
across the country.

A release by the Chamber said persistent nature of the cuts and damage
to infrastructure affect operations and threatens the long term
sustainability of the mobile technology ecosystem, upon which Ghana’s
digitization agenda relies heavily on in delivering a formal, smart
economy and connected society for Ghanaians.

Further data from the industry association reveals that, these cuts
which were caused mainly by private developers, road contractors,
unknown criminals and other utility providers cost the industry over
GH¢30 million in direct repairs only (without counting the cost of loss
of revenue, the non-traditional temporary solutions deployed as well as
additional capital expenditure to keep network availability stable) over
150,000 litres of diesel, and 240 batteries stolen from the cell sites.

Chief Executive of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Ing. Kenneth
Ashigbey said: “the data gathered speaks to the enormous problem that
service providers are faced with; where limited funds are being expended
on repairs of cuts and replacement of equipment as against expanding
the network to enhance quality, reach and experience for customers.

The service providers have to deploy extra meshed networks to provide
additional redundancies to ensure that, the over 300 cuts being
experienced per month currently does not impact more than 25% of the
network”

“We cannot continue to accept this menace as a norm, and we are working
assiduously to reach all partners and stakeholders who work within the
Right of Way (RoW) across the country to agree on modalities to reduce
if not eradicate the menace,” Ashigbey said.

In the light of this development, the Chamber is embarking on a
Sensitization Outreach in 4 main regions where reports of cable thefts,
cuts and damage are rampant to build awareness towards enforcement.

This engagement would seek to bring together stakeholders from the Road
Agencies, Road Contractors, Utility Service Providers, Local Government,
Regulators and others who work within the reservations or play critical
roles in its management. Attendees will work together to build action
plans towards effective collaboration and better coordination within the
right of ways while preserving each other’s infrastructure.

The workshops will engage with security teams within the regions to
ensure criminals who tamper with telecommunications infrastructure are
dealt with in accordance with the law.

Section 77 of the Electronic Communications Act 2008 (Act 775) makes
Fibre Optic Cable cut and damage to communications infrastructure a
criminal offence, to which offenders liable to summary conviction to a
fine of not more than three thousand penalty units or to a term of
imprisonment of not more than five years or both.”

‘The general public is entreated to be vigilant of suspicious persons
who access the Right of Way, culverts fitted with underground cables and
base station facilities without permits or visibly branded outfits.
Kindly inform the law enforcement authority or call your mobile network
operator to report as their activities affect your service and
compromise your security in the long term,” the release said.

The first Sensitization Outreach will be held on Thursday the 27th June 2019 in Cape Coast

Dairy company Arla Foods Limited has launched yet another exciting new
milk flavour under the DANO brand, to meet the growing dairy needs of
Ghanaian consumers.

The DANO Coffee flavoured milk was unveiled in an elaborate ceremony at
the plush Movenpick Hotel in Accra on Friday, April 5th 2019 amidst a
lot of fun and energising activities that communicate the proposition of
the coffee variant.

The Ghana office of Arla Foods which was opened in September 2017 operates with two main brands – DANO and Lurpak.

In a welcome address the Country Manager – Fatoumata Doro mentioned that
Arla Foods drives on 4 health pillars; Making dairy even better,
Inspiring good food habits and choices, Championing dairy goodness and
Making it easier for people to live healthier lives. Hence the
initiative to provide additional dairy options for Ghanaians.

Unveiling the new product, the Marketing Manager of Arla Foods Ltd,
Mawusi Mawuenyefia reiterated that the DANO Coffee is an addition to the
existing flavoured variants (Chocolate and Strawberry flavours) to
provide more nutritious and exciting options of dairy products. Being a
dairy company, our flavoured products are mainly milk with an addition
of natural flavours, she added.

Arla Foods Limited encourage Ghanaians to make dairy nutrition an
essential part of their diet. A healthy diet is a requirement for
developing healthy citizens for building a healthy nation.

Barely two years in Ghana, Arla Foods Limited has introduced a good
array of dairy products on to the Ghanaian market. Under the flagship
DANO brand they have milk products in powdered, UHT(liquid) and
flavoured powder formats.

They also have mozzarella cheese and Lurpak Butter. Other dairy products
will be introduced to the market to provide a wider choice of
nutritious products to Ghanaian consumers.

The new Coffee 3-in-1 variant is a 40g sachet that is expected to be
sold at same price as the other two existing flavours – chocolate and
strawberry.

Total Petroleum Ghana Limited has converted its service station at Korle Bu into a solar-powered one.

The Total Group is committed to a global solar program and is aiming to
equip 5,000 service stations with photovoltaic solar panels around the
world. The project is fully aligned with Total’s ambition to become the
responsible energy major and its commitment to developing solar power.

In addition to the solar station, the company introduced solar kiosks to
selected service stations in Accra in 2018 to provide customers with
easy access to phone charging and WIFI connection.

The wave of renewable energy started in 2015 with the introduction of
100% Total solar lamps which are accessible at all TOTAL service station
shops nationwide.

Since Total Petroleum Ghana Limited inaugurated its three solar powered
service stations, namely, TOTAL Tema Main Harbour, TOTAL Takoradi
Airport Junction and TOTAL Miles 4 in Kumasi, it has been able to reduce
its operation cost thus decreasing the pressure on the local grid and
exploring the potential of solar energy.

The four solar-powered stations were constructed and maintained by local engineers and solar experts.

‘As a responsible industrial player, Total takes action to develop new
energies that are efficient and environmentally friendly, and it is our
resolve to contribute to local development and environmental
sustainability. This is equally central to the modernization of our
service stations to bring convenience and quality products and services
to customers’ said Eric Fanchini.

Promoting a sustainable environment

The TOTAL Korle Bu solar-powered station is an integral part of efforts
to reinforce Total’s network identity with a resolutely contemporary
image and installations that are more energy- efficient and outlets that
blend harmoniously into the environment.

The photovoltaic panels of 18.5 kWp on its forecourt roof convert the
sun’s rays into electricity. This electricity is used to supply
renewable energy to power the entire service station.

‘Its eco-friendly design, transparent canopy, earthy and neutral color
tones, and green area creates a warm and welcoming environment for our
esteemed customers. Whether customers fuel, service or wash their cars
or simply get cold drinks at its Café Bonjour shop, they are partnering
with us to build a more sustainable environment.

The establishment of this solar- powered service station depicts Total’s
dedication to continuous improvement and the establishment of an
identity related to constant innovation that sets us apart in the
downstream petroleum sector. We plan to roll out other solar-powered
service stations in the nearest future,’ Eric Fanchini added.

About Total Petroleum Ghana Limited

Established in 1951, Total Petroleum Ghana Limited is a locally listed
oil marketing company with over 4700 Ghanaian shareholders. The company
has a retail network of 251 service stations across the ten regions of
the country with activities spanning the Aviation, Bitumen and Mining
businesses. The company provides expertise on engine performance and
reduction in fuel consumption through premium quality fuels, lubricants
and car care products. Total Petroleum Ghana Limited is ISO 9001:2015
certified and its respect for quality, standards, achievements and
safety has propelled it to the forefront of the Ghanaian Petroleum
Industry.

About the Marketing & Services division of Total

The Marketing & Services division of Total develops and markets
products primarily derived from crude oil, along with all of the
associated services. Its 31,000 employees are present in 109 countries
and its products and services offers are sold in 150 countries. Every
day, Total Marketing Services serves more than 8 million customers in
its network of over 14,000 service stations in 62 countries. As the
world’s fourth largest distributor of lubricants and the leading
distributor of petroleum products in Africa, Total Marketing Services
operates 50 production sites worldwide where it manufactures the
lubricants, bitumen, additives, special fuels and fluids that sustain
its growth.

About Total
Total is a major energy player, which produces and markets fuels,
natural gas and low-carbon electricity. Our 100,000 employees are
committed to better energy that is safer, more affordable, cleaner and
accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130
countries, our ambition is to become the responsible energy major.